Amazon premiered Season 2 of Jack Ryan a day early (October 31). The eight-episode running plot involves the assassination of a U.S. senator in Venezuela, and Ryan (John Krasinski)'s efforts to get justice.
The signature aspect of Clancy's books is their early focus on intelligence analysis as opposed to action-oriented operations work. As the books progressed, Ryan rose in the ranks, becoming both something an action hero and the highest executive in the land, President of the United States.
Season 2 similarly promotes Ryan as his Season 1 frenemy Jim Greer (Wendell Pierce) is shown to have a debilitating heart condition. (In the books, Greer succumbed to cancer, elevating Ryan to his position.) Also, black ops specialist Matice (John Hogganaker), functionally equivalent to book character John Clark (played by Willem Dafoe in 1994's Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in 2002's The Sum of All Fears), is killed when a mission goes awry.
The latter particularly moves Ryan into more of an action role than I think he's meant to have. Ryan's thoughtfulness and morality show best when he's balanced by operators, not when he is an operator. Season 2 has him not just taking initiative, but manipulating the system so he can do what he wants despite contrary orders. He essentially burns his new boss (Michael Kelly)'s career in the process.
Again, I can't say this is unlike the books, where a 9/11-prescient kamikaze attack gives Ryan the Oval Office. However, I'll always relate better to Ryan the nontraditional everyman than to Ryan the unscathed golden boy. I haven't read through a Clancy book since 1994's Debt of Honor, featuring said kamikaze attack.
With the departure of Pierce's and Hogganaker's characters, the show will be forced to find others to check Ryan's prominence in previously-greenlit Season 3.
Season 2 similarly promotes Ryan as his Season 1 frenemy Jim Greer (Wendell Pierce) is shown to have a debilitating heart condition. (In the books, Greer succumbed to cancer, elevating Ryan to his position.) Also, black ops specialist Matice (John Hogganaker), functionally equivalent to book character John Clark (played by Willem Dafoe in 1994's Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in 2002's The Sum of All Fears), is killed when a mission goes awry.
The latter particularly moves Ryan into more of an action role than I think he's meant to have. Ryan's thoughtfulness and morality show best when he's balanced by operators, not when he is an operator. Season 2 has him not just taking initiative, but manipulating the system so he can do what he wants despite contrary orders. He essentially burns his new boss (Michael Kelly)'s career in the process.
Again, I can't say this is unlike the books, where a 9/11-prescient kamikaze attack gives Ryan the Oval Office. However, I'll always relate better to Ryan the nontraditional everyman than to Ryan the unscathed golden boy. I haven't read through a Clancy book since 1994's Debt of Honor, featuring said kamikaze attack.
With the departure of Pierce's and Hogganaker's characters, the show will be forced to find others to check Ryan's prominence in previously-greenlit Season 3.
Comments